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Articles 1 - 30 of 218

Full-Text Articles in American Studies

‘“We Was Girls Together”’: Black Girlhood And Homoeroticism In Toni Morrison’S Sula, Summer A. Still Apr 2026

‘“We Was Girls Together”’: Black Girlhood And Homoeroticism In Toni Morrison’S Sula, Summer A. Still

Caroliniana Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper examines Toni Morrison’s Sula through the intertwined frameworks of Black girlhood and homoeroticism, with a focus on the friendship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. By analyzing moments of intimacy, dreams, and kinship terminology, I argue that Morrison portrays their bond as both a survival mechanism against oppressive social structures and as a site where homoerotic desire emerges. Concepts such as “fictive kin,” “chosen kin,” and “quare” are used to show how Morrison complicates traditional categories of friendship and queerness in American literature. Ultimately, the novel positions Sula and Nel’s relationship as one of enduring love that exceeds …


America’S First Comic Role, “The Negro”: An Analysis Of Historical Caricatures And Their Influence On African American Characters And Archetypes, Skyla A. Praylow Apr 2026

America’S First Comic Role, “The Negro”: An Analysis Of Historical Caricatures And Their Influence On African American Characters And Archetypes, Skyla A. Praylow

Senior Theses

A stereotype is defined as “a set of ideas that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong.”1 Even though stereotypes are understood to be harmful, “contributing to prejudice and discrimination,” they are still believed to have some “kernel of truth,” and are viewed as “overgeneralized beliefs about social groups in society.” These stereotypes are then used as propaganda to reinforce oppressive systems in the US.2 Stereotypes create the basis of opinions that are used to create caricatures. A caricature is “a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking …


Unveiling Injustices In Theodore Dreiser's “An American Tragedy” And Susan Glaspell's “A Jury Of Her Peers”, Athena Maria Dotsikas Jul 2025

Unveiling Injustices In Theodore Dreiser's “An American Tragedy” And Susan Glaspell's “A Jury Of Her Peers”, Athena Maria Dotsikas

Theses and Dissertations

Crime and its representation in new age media is seeping into every avenue of discussion nowadays. The influence of crime is most notably evident in literature, where real cases inspired fictional novels and short stories that explore social issues and injustices. Since the 16th century, true crime has captivated human curiosity while also shedding light on the United States legal and justice system. Ultimately, true crime narratives provide a deeper understanding of human psychology and the reasons behind a number of gruesome and horrific incidents. This thesis investigates how Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy and Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of …


Wulver In Appalachia, Wylan Blair May 2025

Wulver In Appalachia, Wylan Blair

Persimmon Creek

A poem about a mysterious figure who comes to the aid of a mountain community.


Inoffensively Alice: Gender Politics In The Alice Series, Eirian Gail Wells Jan 2025

Inoffensively Alice: Gender Politics In The Alice Series, Eirian Gail Wells

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Contents Jan 2025

Contents

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


“Being Natural Is Simply A Pose”: The Concept Of Foucault’S Panopticon In The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Orlando, Mya Corcoran Jan 2025

“Being Natural Is Simply A Pose”: The Concept Of Foucault’S Panopticon In The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Orlando, Mya Corcoran

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Comparing The Representations Of Order And Behavior In James Joyce’S “The Dead” And Samuel Beckett’S Endgame, Araav Thakker Jan 2025

Comparing The Representations Of Order And Behavior In James Joyce’S “The Dead” And Samuel Beckett’S Endgame, Araav Thakker

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 27, 2025 Jan 2025

The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 27, 2025

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Submission Guidelines Jan 2025

Submission Guidelines

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


The Great Wizarding Duel: Tolkien’S Possible Influence On Rowling, Anna Jarrell Jan 2025

The Great Wizarding Duel: Tolkien’S Possible Influence On Rowling, Anna Jarrell

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


The Disruption Of Kinship: Interracial Relationships, Displacement, And Marginalized Mixed-Race Families In Korean War Literature, Hyunwook Kim Aug 2024

The Disruption Of Kinship: Interracial Relationships, Displacement, And Marginalized Mixed-Race Families In Korean War Literature, Hyunwook Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The Korean War (1950–1953) left a profound mark on the Korean peninsula, its people, and their diaspora, with its impact still felt today. Korean War literature serves as a vital source for understanding the war's social and cultural ramifications, particularly for marginalized groups, including military sex workers, mixed-race children, and mixed Korean adoptees. Emphasizing the role of interraciality in their experiences, the dissertation delves into literary representations that depict encounters between Korean women and American soldiers, leading to the formation of novel mixed-race families both within military camp towns in Korea and domestic spaces in the United States. While much …


Reading Ecogothic Memory In Contemporary Southern Swamp Novels, Megan Caroline Brockhard Knight Aug 2024

Reading Ecogothic Memory In Contemporary Southern Swamp Novels, Megan Caroline Brockhard Knight

Theses and Dissertations

The ecogothic is a lens through which to engage memory, southern constructivism and identity, environmental intervention, and the literature of the American Southeast. This project establishes a framework of literary criticism that defines the ecogothic, interprets memory as truth imagined, and identifies the position of memory in the environment as a construction with which it is necessary to grapple to understand identity. This framework, compiled of existing and original scholarship, is then applied to three contemporary swamp narratives written by three different southern women writers. The swamp setting creates a unique microcosm of gothic liminality, neither fully land nor water, …


Eco-Domestic Femininity: The Collapse Of Domestic And Wild In Southern Women’S Writing, Christina Xan Aug 2024

Eco-Domestic Femininity: The Collapse Of Domestic And Wild In Southern Women’S Writing, Christina Xan

Theses and Dissertations

When the Agrarians set out to assert their definition of southern in I’ll Take My Stand (1930), they planted roots deep in the ground of the south that slowly wrapped its tendrils around its descendants. In the years that have followed, southern women have had to push back against these limiting boundaries. Their individual stories are linked by the communal lineage of the south, specifically the binary of domestic and wild. Traditionally, southern women have had to stay in the boundaries of the home, cultivating domesticity, ordering the space, and warming the hearth. The land itself, posed as opposite from …


Front Matter, Douglas Higbee Jan 2024

Front Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Contents, Douglas Higbee Jan 2024

Contents, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Editor's Preface, Douglas Higbee Jan 2024

Editor's Preface, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Self-Consciousness And Alienation In Pirandello's One, No One, And One Hundred Thousand, Francesco Satta Jan 2024

Self-Consciousness And Alienation In Pirandello's One, No One, And One Hundred Thousand, Francesco Satta

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Swashbuckling Politicians, Silas Fier Jan 2024

Swashbuckling Politicians, Silas Fier

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Wilfred Owen And Shell Shock: The Initial Sympathetic Understanding Of Ptsd, Rachel Eubanks Jan 2024

Wilfred Owen And Shell Shock: The Initial Sympathetic Understanding Of Ptsd, Rachel Eubanks

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Submission Guidelines, Douglas Higbee Jan 2024

Submission Guidelines, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 26, 2024, Douglas Higbee Jan 2024

The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 26, 2024, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Colonial Body-Logic In George Orwell's Burnese Days: A Contrapuntal Critique, Riley Mays Jan 2024

Colonial Body-Logic In George Orwell's Burnese Days: A Contrapuntal Critique, Riley Mays

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


From "Our Poor" To "Personal Responsibility": Changing Welfare Rhetoric In Political Party Platforms Of The Carolinas And The Nation, 1950-2005, Felicity N. Ropp Oct 2023

From "Our Poor" To "Personal Responsibility": Changing Welfare Rhetoric In Political Party Platforms Of The Carolinas And The Nation, 1950-2005, Felicity N. Ropp

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I track political rhetoric surrounding poverty and welfare from 1950-2005. I first provide thorough context on the history of welfare policy in the United States and the way these issues were framed by politicians leading up to the period my data covers. My analysis centers on 108 political party platforms from the national Republican and Democratic parties and from state parties in North and South Carolina, ranging from 1950 to 2005 (31 of which I located in archives and manually digitized for the first time ever). I explain the significance of party platforms and review the literature …


A New Atticus Is Afoot: The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Popular Culture, Anna Thrush Apr 2023

A New Atticus Is Afoot: The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Popular Culture, Anna Thrush

Senior Theses

This project analyzes the stereotypical image of lawyers in popular culture, focusing on either overly demonic or unrealistically heroic. Both stereotypes that are common portrayals of attorneys in popular culture are unrealistic and deny society a true comprehension of the profession. Popular culture has molded the image of lawyers to the characteristics that sell, rather than focusing on a realistic portrayal. Therefore, popular culture creates a falsely dramatized image of attorneys to generate revenue, putting the reputation and future of the profession as risk. These stereotypes are exemplified in this project through a close literary analysis of lawyer characters from …


Bibliography, Print Culture, And What To Do With Comics In A Rare Books Library, Michael C. Weisenburg Jan 2023

Bibliography, Print Culture, And What To Do With Comics In A Rare Books Library, Michael C. Weisenburg

Faculty and Staff Publications

Comic books are among the rare books of the future. In fact, some comic books are scarcer and more valuable than many of the “old books” that fill special collections stacks. This essay proposes to answer the questions of “What do we do with comics in an academic library?” by analyzing comics as a popular phenomenon that is deeply rooted in book history and the developing print culture of the past 100 years. Using the traditional methods of bibliographic analysis, we might better situate comics within the mission of academic libraries as we work to foster learning, discovery, and inclusivity …


Contents, Douglas Higbee Jan 2023

Contents, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Front Matter, Douglas Higbee Jan 2023

Front Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


Robinson Crusoe Crusades Against Traditional Ideas Of Heroism, Sabrina Hess Jan 2023

Robinson Crusoe Crusades Against Traditional Ideas Of Heroism, Sabrina Hess

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.


The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 25, 2023, Douglas Higbee Jan 2023

The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 25, 2023, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.